Kake Bouken
| homecountry = Land of Swamps | affiliation = Taunagi Gang | previous affiliation = | occupation = Gambler | previous occupation = | team = | previous team = | partner = | previous partner = | family = Unnamed Father (Deceased) | rank = | classification = Gambler Assassin | reg = | academy = | chunin = | jonin = | kekkei = | tota = | beast = | hiden = | nature = | jutsu = All Basic Techniques Body Flicker Technique Yin Release: Jackpot Assurance | weapons = }} Kake Bouken is a gambler and member of the Taunagi Gang. Having been raised by her father, who himself was a chronic gambler, she picked up his habits. After he was beat to death for failing to pay his debts, she took it upon herself to pay off his debts, which she did by picking up the habit of gambling. Having spent ten years gambling starting at the age of ten, she has proven to be a very proficient gambler, enough so that the Taunagi Gang approached her and recruited her into their group when she was fourteen, while also waiving off the debts her father had. With a renewed sense of self-confidence, she leads the Taunagi Gang's gambling division within Kusagakure. She has found herself to be a well renowned gambler, famous in the gambling underworld. Because of originally living in the Land of Water, most have taken to calling her Gambler of the Waves due to her ability to essentially wash out a gambler's money because of her skills. Those who'd try to fight her to free up their debt found themselves defeated time and time again, despite her average at best skills in combat. Background Kake was originally born in the Land of Water. Her father, a chronic gambler, lost everything, and his wife left him and Kake. Struggling to get by, her father's gambling habits would lead them to be banished from the Land of Water. After years of being on the road, just scraping by wherever they could, they finally found home within the Land of Swamps. During this time, Kake's father taught her a few things about gambling and its risks. Though there was plenty of irony in this, she took the advice to heart. Everything was going smoothly in Kusagakure, but eventually, her father's debts caught up to him. Being dragged out in an alley, he was beat to death, his body buried in a grave marked with a simple, wodden cross. Crushed by the loss of her father, the only family she had left, she took to gambling to get away from the emotional turmoil she had to endure. Wanting to pay off her father's debts to keep them from weighing over her, she began taking her gambling much more seriously. Over the years, she got more in tune with her gambling, knowing when to take risks and when not to. But with the enormity of her father's debt, her winnings still weren't enough, despite her winning streak. But her skills in gambling caught the eye of a particular gang who was set up within Kusagakure. They were the Taunagi Gang, once renowned over the world as a gang that had influences on villages far and wide. Having caught wind of her winning streak, they'd not only let her in their gang, but also wipe out the entire debt her father had accrued over the years. Seeing no other way to pay off his debts, she accepted their invitation, and before too long, she was taken to their underground gambling den, which was full of gamblers, but no leader. Because of her expertise in gambling, they made her the leader of Taunagi's Kusagakure Gambling Underground. She proved to be just the leader Kusagakure needed, and Taunagi's Kusagakure Gambling Undergound flourished, attracting more and more people to the village's secret gambling sectors. This has led to increased investigations of the Taunagi Gang, but Kake's level head ensured that any investigations on them led to a dead end, keeping the Taunagi's secret gambling spots in the village safe from detection. Spending the next two years in between being trained to keep the spots hidden, she set up checkpoints within certain perimeters of the gambling dens to look out for potential police in order to give them enough warning to hide all of the gambling equipment in the den in question. Appearance When she was younger, Kake always had something of a simple appearance due to the lack of monetary gain in her family. With matted, black hair, her red eyes always had a sense of fear and discouragement within them, a constant frown upon her face. This emotional turmoil would only brought further by the death of her father. With what winnings she did have, though, she got herself a decent pair of clothes and her hair was brushed down, giving it a long appearance. It wasn't until she joined the Taunagi Gang that she would gain a more extravagant attire. With her long hair tied up, her hair split into two buns that curl freely, with a bonnet sitting on her head. Two bangs rest against the sides of her face. Her outfit became very fashionable, consisting of a very ornately designed dress colored in black with a matching jacket with frilled accents adorning the attire, topped off with a detailed, red tie. She wears black stockings and black shoes to complete the attire. Personality Raised by a gambling addict, Kake always kept her opinions to herself, knowing she didn't really have much room to speak about someone else's issues. She was never one to speak often, and kept most of her negative emotions bottled up, something most people would consider unhealthy. After her fathers death, these negative emotions built up more and more over time, and she began to show them more often, finding that keeping them bottled up was far too overbearing for her to handle. Eventually, she found ironic solace in the same thing that got her father killed; Gambling. She found it helped her get over her emotional issues by giving her something to do other than sulk about her problems. She took a liking to card games, Hanafuda in particular, a game she'd quickly grow adept at in the passing years. Her recruitment into the Taunagi Gang helped her get over her emotional problems by putting her around people who had the same interests in gambling she did. She found respect in her fellow gamblers, and they found respect in her as their leader. For the first time in years, she could feel at ease with her issues. Now, she's a more positive individual and always plays her games with a smile. Not considered much of a factually intelligent individual, what she lacks in factual intelligence, she has always made do with her situational and observational intelligence, both of which she learned quickly in her years of gambling. Despite her shortcomings, she displays very high class levels of mannerisms, greeting everyone as sir or ma'am and always putting the customers first by keeping her gambling dens safe and comfortable. Because she knows all too well the importance of keeping customers happy and ensuring that they're satisfied, even if they end up losing. Abilities Kake was never much of a fighter, choosing to run away from potential confrontations rather than stand out and fight. This has often led to regret within herself, believing she could have saved her father if she had chosen to fight back instead of letting him get beat to death. This memory, stuck deep within her subconscious, drives her to become a better fighter, so she can stand up for herself in the event that she founds herself making one too many enemies in the many games that she has won over the years. Having learned of a few members within the gambling division who had skills in combat, she requested them to teach her how to fight. Over the course of two years, they taught her everything they knew in forms of taijutsu and ninjutsu, how to utilize both to turn the tides in their favor. With the few times she had to demonstrate these skills, she found she had more in the way of luck than actual skill. Using this to her advantage, she created a unique ninjutsu that allowed her to use that luck to her advantage, by changing how her opponent's luck turns out. With this, she found her niche in the skills of ninjutsu, learning the basics that she didn't get to learn since she had no prior education. Her lack of factual intelligence leads to most underestimating her skills, never taking into account her ability to observe her opponent's moves in such a subtle way, they never notice she's observing. Her sharp poker face ensures that she keeps any potential drawbacks hidden. Ninjutsu Ninjutsu is one of the things Kake has taken much interest in, utilizing it the most to turn the tide in battle. With her knowledge in some of the basic skills, she can utilize the more basic techniques to set up for even bigger ones. By obversing her opponent's moves, she can react accordingly, using the right technique for the situation at hand. If she finds them being overly defensive, she can open up that defense using a wide variety of combination setups. By using the Body Flicker Technique, she has come up with a unique method of movement from it. Most usages of the Body Flicker Technique involve a puff of smoke, but Kake has managed to change that up, turning the smoke into razor sharp cards that seem to seek out a nearby target. By using that as a distraction, she can open up a defensive fighter's defenses and get in close to finish the job. She has demonstrated this combination several times, finding more than her fair share of defensive fighter who believe their defense to be impenetrable. In one such occasion, she found herself fighting a rather well known Earth Release user, who has touted his earth wall to be completely unstoppable. Having caught him cheating one too many times, she challenged him to a fight. Learning quickly of his overreliance on the rock wall, Kake took advantage of it, using her Body Flicker to force him to put up his wall. When she got behind him, she delivered a strong paralysis strike against him, striking the back of his neck. If she finds herself against a more offensive dominant fighter, she has contingencies for that as well. With a special ninjutsu technique up her sleeve of her own creation, if she finds an opponent getting a bit too successful in landing attacks, she can change that quickly. By utilizing her Jackpot Assurance technique, she can create a silent observer that watches over her opponent. Each successful move they make fills up a "debt", utilizing the theory of the Gambler's Fallacy. The longer the opponent remains successful, the more that debt begins to fill up. Eventually when the debt has become substantially full, the technique's second phase activates. When it does, it grabs hold of the opponent, causing them to make predictable moves that Kake can easily take advantage of. She had such an encounter against an Uchiha. When she found her using her Sharingan to cheat, she challenged her to a fight. When she found that her techniques and attacks weren't connecting because of her opponent's Sharingan, she decided to change things to her favor with her signature technique. Avoiding her opponent's attacks whenever she could, she kept letting her opponent successfully dodge her attacks. When her opponent's "debt" was filled up enough, she activated the technique's second phase. As it grabbed hold of her, the Uchiha's moves became easily predictable, and she found herself unable to evade Kake's attacks and found herself defeated. Taijutsu Taijutsu is another art that was taught to her in order to help her fight back if she found herself in trouble. Having been taught different forms of taijutsu, she often chooses a specific style for the right situation, much like her ninjutsu. Her skills in taijutsu range from arbitrary skills like jujutsu, to much more advanced methods of close-quarters combat like the illusive capoiera. By choosing the right fighting style, Kake can defend herself accordingly if things get too close, and can fight back efficiently. By utilizing jujutsu, Kake can grab a hold of an opponent's arm with her legs and spin herself up to their neck, grappling their neck with her legs. In some cases where she was forced to kill, she has been known to break someone's neck using this method, using the muscles in her legs to twist their neck swiftly enough to break it. She has had to do this one more than one occasion. One unruly gambler, a kenjutsu expert, found himself in a fight with Kake. Evading the swings of his sword, Kake locked his arm with one of her legs, then used her other leg to lift herself up against his neck. As she tightened her grip on his neck, she twisted her hips, her legs following suit and swiftly breaking his neck. With the more illusive application of capoeira, Kake can dance around her opponents, hiding dangerous kicks and other strikes in a sea of a deadly dance. Using the momentum of her movements, the force of her strikes are increased greatly. This also allows her to evade attacks effortlessly, using the constant source of momentum to evade virtually any physical blow that could come near her. This combination of offense and defense helps against those who were more inclined to evade her attacks rather than outright block them. In one particular case, she was up against a rather wirey opponent, one who would cheat by hiding cards in his sleeves. He was quick to dodge her usual attacks, which meant that she had to change up her strategy. By shifting to capoeira, she was able to reposition herself mid-attack and catch him as he tried to evade. This led to a quick end to his cheating ways when he tried to move right to dodge one kick, only to find himself leaning right in the path of another, rendering him unconscious. Genjutsu Genjutsu is another thing one of her gang mates taught her how to utilize. In Kake's case, she uses genjutsu to manipulate one's perception of objects in space. By using a pair of dice as the catalyst of her genjutsu, the number the dice land on when thrown determine the effect. For example, if she were to roll a pair of snake eyes, the things her opponent's see would be doubled. If she rolled a set of opposite numbers, like one and two, two and four, or three and six, her opponent's vision is inverted, causing everything they see to be upside down. If she rolls a set of odd numbers, like one and three or three and five, the things her opponent sees would be mirrored. What's left is right, up is down. If she rolls a set of even numbers, two and four or four and six, the colors of the things they see end up being inverted, with black objects being white, red objects being blue, and so on. If she rolls an odd and even roll, her opponent's vision is split, with nothing but black in the center of their vision, like mirrored tunnel vision. If she rolls a standard pair, her opponent's vision is reduced to tunnel vision, eliminating their peripheral vision. But her ultimate roll is the twin six roll. If Kake lands this roll, her opponent's vision is altered so slightly, they'd almost not even notice it. But in reality, every object they see is in a completely different position than it actually is, making it impossible for them to discern themselves in terms of position. Kake has also been trained on how to identify genjutsu to make sure that she herself can't be caught within most forms of genjutsu. This helped her greatly when she found one gambler cheating by using genjutsu to change the cards everyone was seeing, making it look like he always had a winning hand. When Kake found out about it, she fought him. When he tried to use his genjutsu on her, he found out it wasn't working against her since she knew it was a genjutsu. So she decided to use her own genjutsu. Rolling a pair of dice, she managed to land a double six, her best roll. Every time her opponent tried to hit her, he was attacking seven inches to her left because that's where the genjutsu made him believe that she was. This left him wide open to counterattacks. When the genjutsu ended, Kake threw her dice once again, land a five and a two, causing the central part of his vision to turn black, making it impossible to see what was right in front of him. Using this to her advantage, she pushed the offensive and kept striking him down with her taijutsu until he conceded defeat.